Voice of America: White House criticized for invite to Sudan official

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A U.S. Congressman and activists have criticized the White House for inviting a Sudanese presidential aide Nafie Ali Nafie, who is accused of human rights abuses, to Washington for talks.

In a letter sent to President Obama last week, Congressman Frank Wolf noted that Nafie has been accused of “torturing enemies” and “cozying up to Osama bin Laden in the 1990s”

The letter said Nafie had opposed the 2005 peace agreement that ended the decades-long civil war in Sudan, and was against allowing U.N. peacekeepers into Darfur.

“I just don’t think that the United States government ought to be meeting with people who have been identified with the activities that he’s been identified with,” Wolf said.

Martina Knee, co-founder of ACT for Sudan, an alliance of Sudanese and U.S. activists advocating for “an end to genocide and mass atrocities in Sudan”, called the visit a betrayal of Sudanese people everywhere.